Whatz It Feel Like: Signs of heroin use

Here’s some signs that you want to look for: like if your kid was involved in sports and they’re they’re no longer… They don’t care about sports and they’re hanging out with a new group of friends… Right… like you need to explore why. They’re withdrawn…. if they’re wearing long sleeves in the summertime… If the Xbox and the TV and the cell phones coming up missing.. right.. like these are all very important red flags pinpointed pupils… Sweaty, always having the flu every couple of weeks, you know signs of withdrawal but This is what I tell the parents at these school districts. I said listen if this were any other If this were the flu or if this were like some kind of measles or something Like what would we do as a community right? Like we would want to a contain it, right and then we’d want to identify the people that have it. And so, parents need to start drug testing their kids. They need to. Stop being afraid of doing that. You need to identify. We know the data shows that earlier you intervene in this the better the outcomes. Nine out of ten people with an sud started in their teen. So we need to identify it in the teens and intervene then right? But we need to start taking these interventions. You have some tools out there. Self reporting is not very reliable Laura. You’re telling me that you didn’t do heroin today.. It’s not very reliable. But my little cup over here… this 99.9% reliable. It’ll tell me whether or not you did heroin, right? Parents need to start doing that and here’s why: we live in a different age. There’s so many more dangerous substances out there now. I never heard about fentanyl being in cocaine when I was using cocaine, right like I never even heard about fentanyl then.. I never even knew when I was a teenager unless I saw really sought it out… who was holding the heroin. And you can go to any high school right now and they can tell you five people that they can get heroin from. Right? There, there, there’s so many more dangerous substances out there. Teenagers know how to get on the dark net and a teenager can go on the dark net and they can use that prepaid credit card that grandma gave them for Christmas, with a hundred bucks on it, and they can buy bitcoins and all this virtual money and stuff.. very simple to do… and they can order heroin online and it will be delivered to your mailbox and it’ll say on the outside of the box “Xbox controller” or it will say “Nintendo” game or whatever, right? Like it’ll be disguised, but what’s really in there is heroin. And teenagers are doing this all across the country. Parents need to start… if you see those signs that I was just talking about, you need to test your kid or bring them to a facility before it gets into addiction. There’s two times in the human development that the brain is doing a growth and it’s a, it’s an exploratory stage for the for the brain. One is a toddler’s.. right… you remember your kids when they’re like two… they’ve just got their wheels under on their legs, right? What are they doing? They’re running around. They’re climbing on stuff. They’re getting into things… putting crap in their mouths right. “Get your tongue out of the light socket,” right? You remember that? Like they’re the gas pedal right? Right?… always on the gas. Who’s the brakes?… (off camera: “mom and dad”) mom and dad are the brakes. “Get off that! Got that out of your mouths”… you know.. “Time to take a nap. It’s time for bed. Take a bath.” They’re supposed to explore this with their brain, it’s that, it’s that stage. Their brain is having this growth spurt and they’re supposed to explore. And, the other time is the teenage brain and it’s right after 12 years old right… from my… 7 to 12 is kind of a weird age in there, you know, they’re just kind of starting to fit in figuring things out, right? 12 years old though… that’s when their brain is starting to do that growth again and they want to explore and they want to be independent right, “Get out of my room, mom,” Right?… like that kind of stuff And what are they doing?… the gas pedal. They’re running around with people they shouldn’t be… running around to places they shouldn’t be running around to, right?.. putting crap in their mouth like cigarettes and weed and pills. And why doesn’t mom and dad pump the brakes? “I don’t want to get into their cell phone. That’s their privacy.” No, that’s where they’re ordering heroin from. That’s how they’re telling their boyfriends to come over and sneak in and have sex. And, we’re paying for those cell phones. And so parents need to be the brakes.

I see these signs in adult friends, family, colleagues – it's not just applicable to our teenage children. No one is immune from this opioid epidemic. There are lawyers shooting up at high end law firms, while the "little people" are too afraid to say anything about it so they just turned their backs and look the other way!! This has reached a level that has touched pretty much everyone, everywhere!!